July 27, 1944 - June 02, 2017
Barrie Skinner died of pancreatic cancer on June 2, 2017 at her home in East Palo Alto. She is survived by Loren Courtland Skinner, II, her husband, Heidi Jill Graham, daughter, Nicole Sherry Pelton, daughter, and Loren C. Skinner, III, son and Ronald and Todd Shuffler, her brothers. She had five grandchildren, Ivy Skinner, Chris Skinner, Jordan Graham, Keegan Pelton and Donovan Pelton.
Barrie graduated in 1966 with a B.S. in Math from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of 18 women in a class of nearly 1000. After moving to Arizona in 1966 and having a family, she and husband, Court, moved to California where Court got a job working for American Microsystems, Inc. an early member of the budding semiconductor industry. She decided to go to work when Ralph Vaerst of Ion Equipment Corporation offered her a job selling ion implanters. She subsequently worked for a number of companies that served the semiconductor manufacturing business including Nikon and Horiba Instruments, Inc. She always took care of her customers and earned their respect as well as that of her competitors. As at M.I.T. she succeeded in an environment dominated by men and was a role model for many young women who succeeded her in the business.
She retired at 65, shortly after moving to East Palo Alto, CA. She worked for a while at Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto and for the East Palo Alto Senior Center and then with her husband also retired she followed a long term dream of traveling to interesting places around the world - Australia to view an eclipse of the sun, Paris to listen to William Webster's opera, Austria, Barcelona, Majorca, Italy and finally Morocco in northern Africa.
She loved to tell stories. Her quick wit and cheerful smile will be missed by her family and friends around the world.
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